Mary LaDue’s Life in Parallel with the Debate over Instrumentation
Greenville College was founded by the Free Methodists in 1892 following the purchase of the former all-women’s institution Almira College. This occurred the year before B. T. Roberts’ death in 1893. From its beginnings, the Greenville College School of Music offered courses in harmony, sight-singing, music history, voice, piano, and organ; and many opportunities for private lessons. For years, college-endorsed events included the use of instruments. In the Wilson and Mary LaDue papers, there is program from the 1922 Sophomore Frolic on Marston Lawn which featured a piano duet (LaDue Papers, M-104a, folder #19). This highlights that the use of instruments in themselves was not forbidden, just their use in worship. However, this use of instruments seems to have built a level of comfort and familiarity with their use that would later translate into an acceptance for implementation in worship services.
Mary LaDue’s story of connection to the college began before her birth when in 1894, her future parents-in-law, John and Jennie LaDue (Wilson’s parents) arrived in Greenville. John came to Greenville College to found the Theological Department. Jennie LaDue was a musician and enjoyed providing spiritual guidance and support to students. Eight years after their arrival in Greenville, their son Wilson (Mary’s future husband) was born in 1902. Wilson would grow up to attend Greenville College as a student from which he graduated in 1924.
Mary completed her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois that same year. Upon graduating, she began her teaching career in the Greenville College Music department for her first stint, which lasted a couple of years. The year 1927 was a big year for Mary as she finished her second degree, a Bachelor of Science in Music from the University of Illinois, and then married Wilson.
The couple quickly moved to Michigan where Wilson worked on his master’s degree at the University of Michigan. They began many life-long traditions that would anchor their relationship for years to come. These included the annual purchase of a “Jane Parker” fruit cake a couple of weeks before Christmas at an A&P store; the playing of carols in the morning and Handel’s Messiah at night every day until Christmas beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving; and the countless poems they would write to each other for the rest of their lives together. Upon graduating, Wilson taught at Spring Arbor College where the couple resided until their return to Greenville in 1933.
These years saw the conflict over musical instruments in the church move to the forefront of Free Methodist interest and debate. In 1931, a General Conference proposal called to remove the forbiddance of instruments and choirs from the Book of Discipline. The proposal was voted against 98 to 45. There was, however, an exemption clause for “foreign-speaking churches or missions in the United States, Mexico, and Japan” (Marston, 343). Marston interprets this exemption to mean that instruments were not thought to be sinful in themselves. Yet, instruments and choirs remained forbidden from churches.
The matter was not settled, however. Between the 1931 and 1935 General Conferences, the denominational Board of Administration voted possibly to overturn the decision. The results of this vote are lost to history as the 1935 General Conference determined the vote to be unauthorized. The General Conference vote to approve instrumental music in 1935 was defeated once again with the outcome of 43 to 112. However, this margin narrowed to 61 to 98 by 1939 when the matter was revisited (Marston, 343).
It was at this critical point in the battle for instruments that Mary reengaged in the music classroom as a professor back at Greenville College, beginning in 1933 until Wilson’s and her next stint away in 1945. An example of Mary’s position and influence on the issue was on full display after the third General Conference defeat of the allowance of instrumentation when Mary boldly played the organ for Kenneth and Pauline Kline’s wedding in spite of the General Conference decision. The ceremony, however, was held at the LaDue Chapel (named after Mary’s parents-in-law) at the college so as not to go against the Book of Discipline rule forbidding the organ within a church (Wilson, LaDue Papers, M-104a, folder #17). There also appears to be some substantial evidence that Mary taught courses not only on piano, but also on choral conducting during and prior to this time. This stretch of time was not only significant professionally, but also personally for the LaDue family as Mary and Wilson adopted Elmer and Eldred after the death of their parents. In addition, Wilson would go on to receive his doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1939.
Greenville College hosted the next General Conference in 1943. Regarding the lead-up to the vote on instrumentation, The Free Methodist magazine described the ninth sitting as seeing two hours of debate and questions, stating that “the Conference frequently finds itself in parliamentary entanglements.” In the tenth sitting, “there is an air of expectancy and keen interest as to the momentous possibilities of this sitting, which bids fair to become an historic occasion” (The Free Methodist June 18, 1943; p. 16 (376)). Historic indeed, as this was the year when the shift occurred to allow for musical instruments within local churches. The General Conference approved the use of instruments, but not choirs, based on approval of the Annual Conference to permit their implementation within its respective jurisdiction and a 2/3 vote from the local congregation. This was passed by a vote of 88 to 84 (1943 General Conference Minutes, pp. 687-688).
The 1947 General Conference held in Winona Lake, Indiana, met with a similar level of anticipation. The denominational reporter observed that there were so many chairs set up that B. N. Miner, the one who made introductions, had to sit on a waste basket; the reporter stated that “some great speeches are made. We hear about camels getting into tents; Free Methodist churches located next to bakeries; looking through telescopes from the wrong end. You may wonder how such things apply to the question of music, but great is the power of mental gymnastics.” (The Free Methodist June 27, 1947, Vol 80, number 26, p. 16 (384)). Despite the intense discussions, the General Conference voted to uphold the 1943 decision but eliminated the need for Annual Conferences to first approve instrumentation, leaving it up to the 2/3 congregational vote (The Free Methodist, Vol. 80, Number 26, p. 16). Choirs were still not allowed at this time and wouldn’t be until the General Conference decision of 1955, at which time instruments were allowed in local churches with a simple majority vote (Marston, 344).
During the stretch between these momentous General Conferences, Mary and Wilson left Greenville while Wilson taught at Bethany-Peniel College in Bethany, Oklahoma from 1945-1947 and Mary earned a Master in Music Education degree from the University of Oklahoma, finishing in 1946. However, they maintained their house on North Elm in Greenville as they intended to return to their home in Southern Illinois. They returned in 1947 to teach once again at Greenville College until their respective retirements.
Interestingly, the local church which Mary LaDue attended, the Greenville Free Methodist Church, determined that their congregational singing was of high quality and did not need instrumentation. However, in a few years they decided to install a Baldwin electric organ in November of 1950 during the pastorate of Lyle Donnelly with Hilda Bowers being one of the first organists. From 1958 to 1960 the congregation held services in the college chapel to make use of the pipe organ (Wilson paper) until the construction of their new church building in 1960 (now Whitlock Music Center). Note that the organ was approved at a time when the LaDues were back in Greenville and part of the congregation’s decision.
It was clear that Mary and Wilson worked as a team in many ways. Their students affectionately referred to them as “Aunt Mary” and “Uncle Wilson,” while they returned the affection by referring to the students as their nieces and nephews. On July 10, 1969, Wilson LaDue died, leading Mary into a season of deep grief with the loss of her husband and life-partner in ministry. Mary turned to gardening as therapy for her sorrow. She gained a fair amount of local and regional notice for her new-found hobby. Mary was interviewed in a 1979 article from the Saint Louis Post Dispatch by Clarissa Start. The beginning of the article focused on her gardening which was exquisite by all accounts at her brown shingled house styled after a Swiss chalet in Greenville (LaDue Papers).
Mary LaDue’s musical influence throughout this time was brought to a bit of a climax in 1971, when she retired from the college in May, in September was granted an honorary doctorate from Greenville College, and that year gave a sizeable gift to the Greenville Free Methodist Church in the amount of $20,000 for the installation of a pipe organ. The total cost for this Wicks Organ was $35,000 so additional funds were needed. For these funds, Mary wrote to alumni, “nieces and nephews”, who were part of the six classes which Mary and Wilson sponsored. Even some students took initiative to get behind the project. For example, sophomore Don Bastian, Jr. (bishop’s son) planned a piano and French horn recital to help raise funds. Upon completion, yearly concerts and recitals were performed by guest organists in addition to Sunday services (Wilson paper). The church named it the “LaDue Memorial Organ” in memory of John, Jennie, and Wilson.
On November 18, 1982, Mary died, leaving behind a legacy of music, education, love for students, and an embrace of musical instruments as tools for use in the worship of Almighty God.
Reflections
The unfolding responses to instrumentation in the Free Methodist Church is interesting to track over time. The matter began as a deep conviction against performance-based church services which take attention away from genuine worship. In time, the argument against instruments fell into legalistic mandates. In response, the call for the introduction of instruments into worship services became a call away from legalism. Mary LaDue’s example serves a model of respectful and steady influence away from this legalism in order to embrace the use of instruments as tools to glorify God.
As the pendulum swings over time, this bids the question, where are we at now? Today, it is commonplace to see not only pianos and organs used in a Free Methodist Worship service, but the occasional wind or other string instruments, electric keyboards, guitars, and drums. The latter endured their own debates and battles for acceptance. In a day when the Christian music industry brings in multiple billions of dollars annually, it may be argued that we are in a phase when the pendulum has swung back toward entertainment. Perhaps there are the B. T. Robertses and Mary LaDues of our day who would gently lead the church back on center, to the place where instruments may continue, but with the sole end being to serve as tools in the genuine worship of God.
